The Curse Encounter, a book that enlists all the discovered phenomena, creatures, and solutions that are related to the Dark nature. From all the books Ayuki read, this was the one she found the most intriguing. If she wanted to join the Order Elites, she felt it was at least necessary to research their number one threat as much as possible.

The introduction described the history and a few theories behind the Dark nature; during the start of its attack, The Dark Days, people began to see the whole nature outside the city as evil and dangerous. They invented the term "Dark nature", and used it for every living thing outside the city.

Now, however, calling every entity—the Dark nature—is probably not the correct thing to say. There are many theories behind it, but the most accepted theory is the one Yeon Althain came up with, 'The threat we call "Dark nature" is a dangerous substance that has the potential to mutate every living entity.' It's the substance that needs to be dealt with, but the mutated creatures are what makes the outside world so dangerous. Until so far, there's no discovery of what the substance is, hence it remains a theory. One thing is certain though; the mutated creatures are there.

The book only mentioned eighteen species in total that contained a detailed sketch with a description of its features, attacks, inflictions, and a list of countermeasures. The rest were mostly just rough sketches or no sketches at all, and only short descriptions with hardly any preventions to find. Dedroy did mention that a lot still needed to be discovered.

The categories of the Dark nature that the book mentioned were as following:

Classification: Type of species: Tarmin Plant type Dormin Animal type Furmin Insect type Tyrmin Weather type

The only creatures I've seen so far is the Cyllius, a dark moving mist that is part of the tyrmin classification, and the Defarin, a giant sand-spewing lizard, the dormin type. Whenever I remember the human sounds coming from the cyllius, a few thoughts crossed my mind. What if it has a concience? What if it attacks humans for a reason? What if we could influence their behavior? 

All kind of attempts to communicate with the Dark nature were conducted with no positive results. Most people say that communication with the Dark nature is impossible, that it is an irrational thing to do, but I still have my doubts about that. No one had my ability before, and if trained correctly, it can verify things more accurately than any other research will. In my opinion, a couple of the Dark nature species show signs of human characteristics. The cyllius, for example, shows a certain hatred towards people. It records its victim's sufferings, painful memories, and even their fears.

There's also one called the "rukiola", a plant that uses its vines to capture humans alive, rather than kill them. They say it prefers its prey alive because of the body's heat. It dislikes cold temperature, like most of us, does. Perhaps it doesn't want to stay lonely? 

At the GA, the Order quickly judged my ability as an empathy type. There wasn't enough time to test my ability on other things besides humans. Will it work on animals or insects for example? I couldn't feel a thing from my memories of that Defarin attack, most likely because I focused more on running than looking at it.

Many thoughts came to mind, but a simple problem was stopping Ayuki from testing out her ideas. There's a basic thing that all Fes users have in common: you can't do much with a low Fes output. In other words, the amount of Fes output determines the quality and possibilities of your Fes capabilities. A lot more training is necessary if she wants a useful ability. 

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The break time of the introduction day ended, and the tour around the Order headquarters was about to begin. Ayuki had to finish her conversation with Aisha, but the most important points were at least discussed. There was one thing Aisha asked Ayuki to do for her, something only Ayuki could do—the recruitment of a particular person. 

Just before the tour began, Ayuki had to find that person before the groups were determined. There were too many people, after all, so the Order wanted to divide everyone into smaller groups. Almost at the back, she found him standing still, wearing a new hoodie today. "Hey, Ryuzo," she said to him.

Ryuzo quickly looked at her with a serious looking face. "Huh, what? Oh, hey."

Aisha shortly told Ayuki his GA report. He has a very good eyesight, hearing, intelligence, and concentration, but his most prominent quality is his Fes output. The Order couldn't explain it, but his output was by far the highest they've seen from all the assessments that were held.  On the contrary, however, he doesn't have a Fes ability, or to be more precise, it wasn't possible to discover it. They call it "Nofes", a person that doesn't possess a Fes ability. A Nofes is known to have a very low Fes output, but Ryuzo's situation was a rare one.    

"I was looking for you. There's something I need to discuss with you," Ayuki said.

Ryuzo was looking a bit uncomfortable. "Okay." 

Oh dear, I hope I sound enthusiastic enough. "I'll be frank, would you be interested in temporarily joining an already existing Elites squad? The experience will greatly benefit our final examination, and you can instantly start with missions outside the city once you pass the program."

He looked surprised, either by Ayuki's fake enthusiasm or just her proposal. "W—why me? Haven't I told you my reason for being here?"

"Yes, and I have been thinking. The mission our squad wants to do might help you out."

"You mean recovering Yeon's notebooks?"

What? Did he read my mind? "How did you—"

"I overheard your conversation earlier; I'm sorry for that. It wasn't my intention to, and I didn't hear everything. However, coming back to the issue, you probably think the Crymsin disease might be written in Yeon's notebooks, correct?"

It's shocking how accurate he is; I've never even said this. His hearing sure is impressive though. There wasn't anyone near when I was talking to Aisha. "Yes. Yeon is known to mostly focus on curing diseases. Don't you think there's a good chance she wrote something about it?" 

His face wasn't convinced at all. "I doubt it. Even if she did, she surely wasn't alive at the time of the Crymsin Melderoy. It won't explain what happened that day." He clenched his fist. "Or why—the Order acted that way..." he mumbled. 

Was the Order involved in that case? It doesn't look like he will explain more about it. "Then—what kind of mission do you have in mind? How do you plan to find out what happened?" 

He sighed heavily. "The cyllius. Most people don't know, but the cyllius can accurately capture certain moments. I need to find the right cyllius and hear what it managed to capture of the Crymsin Melderoy. The only thing I'm sure of is that at least one of them captured it."

The cyllius always move together in groups like birds do in a flock. The curse encounter book mentioned a favorite place where all of them gather; this also just a theory since the location was never found due to their ability to turn invisible. Ryuzo must be planning to locate that area. He doesn't have a Fes ability and he wants to go alone. He either has a death wish or is hiding something special.

"You know," Ayuki said, "I don't support your idea yet, but I do support your goal. I would like to help out if possible."

Ryuzo's expression was conflicted. "Why?"

Why? "You seem to be troubled by the past, and as you said, there's not much information about it. If it's one of the most dangerous diseases without a cure, then we need to resolve that, right?"

"No, I mean, why would you want to help me? Why would the squad want to help me? You know nothing about me. Why increase your risk of danger for a stranger like me? I don't get it."

With everything that happened to Ayuki so far, she sure is familiar with the feeling of being a stranger. "If with 'stranger' you mean—I don't know you well enough—then I can call myself a stranger too. You're not a stranger to me now; you're Ryuzo. You want to help your hometown and find out the truth behind that day. That sounds like a job an Order Elite has to do. Besides," Ayuki said, "this is one of Yeon's philosophies, 'Great risks are necessary to achieve great things.' We all have ideas and are willing to risk big things for it, but we have to use our heads too. A wrong decision can cost a life after all."

Ayuki began to walk at a slower pace. "Oh, you don't have to stay in the squad if you don't like it." She smiled now. "Why not try it out and see what it's like? It's the same for me you know, I also don't know if I would like it yet."

Ryuzo had trouble to answer her now; he seemed to be contemplating. "I'm sorry. Can I have some time to think about it?"

"Sure, take as much time as you need."

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The tour was already in progress, but Ryuzo wasn't paying much attention to it. A long time has passed since he was surrounded by many people, it started to make him feel a little nervous. To top it all off, he got invited to join a squad. How did that happen? Why would anybody want me? It's the first time something like this occurred to me. He wondered about it but quickly changed his mind. No, they don't want me, they want my Fes output. They know I'm a Nofes, why else would they invite me to the team? 

Ah, my alarm senses are going crazy now, what should I do? I can't stay calm... I will just say, no, I can't join you guys. They can't be trusted anyways. Aisha and Eran already lied at the start, there's another person I don't know about, and Ayuki is an intruder with an unknown background; their squad is fishy as hell! As many excuses as Ryuzo could think of, he still couldn't shake off that one thing Ayuki said to him, "Why not try it out and see what it's like?" He didn't want to admit it, but it was a good argument. Damn it, what's wrong with me?

The tour was probably around mid-ways now, and Ryuzo still couldn't concentrate on it. Ayuki was walking close-by too, just that added more pressure to his anxiety. Why did I have to hear their conversation? I knew she was going to invite me, and yet I didn't really hide. Did I want to be found? Do I subconsciously want to be part of a squad? Okay, I need to calm down. Focus.

He reminded himself of his vague past. The people that died that day, seeing his mother slaughtered in front of his eyes with her last spoken words that haunted Ryuzo these past few weeks. Normally, he hated himself when he thought about the past, but ever since he remembered his mother's dying words from the cyllius, he felt more determined to find out what happened. I was living a terrible lie for a long time, that will change. I was supposed to be dead that day... Is there perhaps—still meaning in my life here?

At the end of the tour, Ayuki walked away. Ryuzo stopped her by saying, "Wait." He couldn't spit it out immediately, but eventually said, "I'm willing to try it out."